Trend Micro Antivirus Review 2019 - Does it Actually Work? 

If you’re looking for powerful protection from viruses and other malware, Trend Micro gives you a great alternative. The company’s products scored high marks on tests from the major independent labs, and my own tests showed me Trend Micro is no joke. Trend Micro’s Titanium Antivirus Plus, their core service, gives you the company’s essential malware detection and removal tools. When you run a scan, it will check all your files for malware and delete it if it finds anything. In my trials, Trend Micro got rid of every single bit of malware I installed on it.

Heuristic Scans Check for Hidden Malware  

One cool feature I found was the company’s “heuristic scans,” which don’t look at specific files or folders, but study how they act to see if there are any suspicious programs running on your PC in secret. This helps find and root out any malware that may be hidden in a seemingly normal file. If Trend Micro finds anything fishy, it uploads it to the cloud, where a team of the company’s experts continues studying it.

Defense Against Malware

Another cool utility Trend Micro includes in its Antivirus is the company’s Folder Shield, which lets you choose specific folders you want to guarantee are safe from any attack. I was also happy to see Trend Micro’s browser extensions in action. Oftentimes, we let malware into our PCs without even knowing it by visiting suspicious websites or downloading suspicious files. If you have children, or you’re on social media all the time, you’ll also benefit from Trend Micro’s social media defenses, which help optimize your privacy settings and make sure you’re only sharing with the people you want.

Excellent Surfing Protection Extensions

The company’s extensions for Internet Explorer, Safari, Chrome, Opera, and Firefox tell you exactly what kind of website you’re visiting. On the extension, you’ll see a small colored dot whenever you visit a website. A green dot shows you the website is safe while yellow and red mean you may want to leave as soon as possible.

Safety Comes at a Price

Something that annoyed me a little is that it was hard to opt out of the company’s data collection. This isn’t a major deal, but if you’re concerned about your privacy, being able to easily ensure you’re not sharing your data is important. However, Trend Micro was great at keeping me safe.

Defend Your Files from Ransomware
Ransomware can be fatal for your files as hackers encrypt them and lock you out of your own computer until you pay them. Even worse, it’s becoming one of the most popular ways hackers can get money and other concessions out of you. Trend Micro is on top of it though, with their multi-layered defenses against ransomware attacks. When the antivirus detects that your files are being encrypted without your permission, Trend Micro does two things: It will automatically back up any files that are targeted to make sure you still have full access to them, and it will actively try to stop encryption if it looks suspicious. The best part for me is that Trend Micro can bypass any ransomware locking mechanisms, so it can always rescue your PC and files.

Keep your Kids Safe When They Browse
One of the biggest concerns for most parents about the internet is what their children can see while browsing on their own. A major feature I’ve found with antiviruses is a parental control dashboard, which is vital for families. I was happy to find that Trend Micro does also offer parental controls, and they’re pretty great. The parental controls let you choose which websites your children can visit, and also let you limit how long your kids are browsing, encouraging them to go outside or do other activities. You can even let Trend Micro configure parental controls automatically by inputting your children’s ages and setting protections to automatic. Overall, it’s simple but useful and it gives Trend Micro extra credit.

Make Sure Your Files are Deleted
I tend to have a lot of sensitive files that I keep for work, and sometimes I need to get rid of them. However, simply putting them in the recycling bin doesn’t actually remove them from my PC, so anyone could still hack my computer and find them. I was glad to use Trend Micro’s Secure Erase, a digital file shredder which makes sure your files are fully gone from your computer. You can choose from the Quick Erase option, which simply gets rid of the file on all levels (from your folder to the hard drive), or the Permanent Erase, which also writes over what’s left of the file to guarantee no one or nothing can use it when it's done.

Protect Your Privacy from Anyone
When you visit the Trend Micro Privacy tab, you’ll find several tools that are great at keeping your identity safe when you’re online. The first is the social media protection, which scans an impressive number of social media sites including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and other websites making sure your privacy settings are optimized. To get it to work properly, though, you’ll need to make sure to install the Trend Micro extension for your favorite web browser. Another unique and terrific feature I discovered is the company’s Data Theft Prevention, which lets you easily protect the information most important to you. You can enter a set of letters and even words into the program’s “watch list,” and if Trend Micro detects that sequence of characters or words being copied from your computer, it’ll automatically block the connection. I’ve not been able to find this feature anywhere else, which makes Trend Micro a top choice for privacy.

Make Your Computer Run Smoothly
Many antivirus suites give you PC optimization tools, but I haven’t found many as fast or as terrific as Trend Micro’s tools. First of all, the program’s scans can take as little as a few seconds, and it checks for several things that can slow down your computer. This includes things like gaps in your security such as firewalls and out-of-date software, files and folders that are taking up too much space on your hard drive, and even ways to make your PC start up faster. Overall, I found that Trend Micro’s optimization tools significantly improved my PC’s performance.

The first thing you’ll notice when you open up Trend Micro is that it doesn’t have a lot of buttons and menus, which is a great thing. The center of the screen has a round button called “scan,” which lets you start a scan at any time. Underneath it is your status, which lets you know if you’re protected or not. All your additional tools are hidden behind the four buttons on the screen which sort features conveniently for you and keeps the program’s clutter to a minimum.

Getting started was also easy, with the installation taking only a few minutes once I completed the download. When I first set up Trend Micro, it performed a full system check and a scan to set up a baseline. Overall, Trend Micro was easy to set up, use, and once I’d configured it I pretty much forgot about it and it still protected me well.

One minor complaint that I have about Trend Micro is that its support is separated into Standard and Premium support—only the latter of which gives you around-the-clock access to support staff via phone. However, the standard support is still available Monday through Friday, between 5 am and 8 pm Pacific Standard Time. Otherwise, I found the company’s live chat was highly useful, as it let me skip the lines and find a support agent as soon as I needed one. One cool feature that I haven’t seen many other antivirus companies offer is Trend Micro’s “Ask Vanessa” program, which lets users ask the company’s support bot basic questions about the program and services and get quick answers.

Overall, the support staff was great at answering even my most complicated questions, and I had to wait almost no time on average whenever I tried to contact them. If you prefer to find the answers for yourself, Trend Micro’s support page has a ton of great resources including guides, an FAQ with answers to most of the basic questions about the service, and more.

Both Trend Micro’s Antivirus Plus and its Internet Security come in 1-year subscriptions. One complaint I have is that the company’s service is by default set to auto-renew every year. I did find, however, that you can change this setting inside Trend Micro, though it does take a little digging. Overall, however, I found the company’s prices for both products to be relatively more affordable than some of the bigger names.

The Antivirus Plus option is focused exclusively on Trend Micro’s security tools, which include ransomware, malware, and virus protection. It also includes the company’s email spam protection. When you sign up for the Internet Security plan, you also receive the privacy and PC optimization tools. I was also happy to see that although the Antivirus is only for a single device, the Internet Security package is good for up to 3 PCs. If you have multiple computers at home, Internet Security is the way to go, as it’s only a small price increase.